BT 2013 Annual Report Download - page 14

12 Strategy 12
Chief Executive’s introduction
Making a difference
Communications services are increasingly
important in today’s world. Our customers
rely more and more on our services and
our networks whether they are one of the
10m households we serve, our hundreds of
wholesale providers, or the largest global
businesses. This is a big opportunity for BT;
it is also a big responsibility. All of us in BT
recognise that what we do as a business
makes a real difference to our customers and
the societies in which we operate. That is
why we are investing in new infrastructure,
technology and services. We are proud to make
a difference – and I’d like to thank our people
for making it happen.
Opportunities across the
wholebusiness
At the start of the global economic downturn
we made a bold commitment to invest in
fibre broadband. That £2.5bn investment
programme has already brought fibre within
reach of more than half of the UK’s homes and
businesses – increasing by more than 100,000
premises per week. Delivery is on budget and
18 months ahead of our schedule. We believe
that, together with government support
and subject to an acceptable investment
environment, we can pass more than 90% of
premises with our network in the next three
tofour years.
We are also investing in the next generation
of TV. We will offer a complete package of
phone, broadband and TV. We are rolling out
new services and providing new channels and
on-demand content. The launch of BT Sport
this summer will bring real competition to the
pay-TV market. Our three channels – BT Sport 1,
BT Sport 2 and ESPN – will provide premium
sports content including Premier League first
picks, exclusive rugby coverage and women’s
tennis. By offering BT Sport for free with BT
broadband, we are making world-class sport
affordable. Superb production facilities,
backed up by a team of top sporting and
broadcasting talent, promise to make this a
great service.
We have also invested in 4G mobile spectrum
which will allow us to offer enhanced mobile
broadband services to consumers and
businesses – helping our customers to stay
‘best connected’ wherever they are. The
spectrum allows us to build on our existing
strength in wi-fi where usage of our 5m wi-fi
hot spots tripled in the year to 13bn minutes.
We are seeing the benefits of our investments
in the high-growth regions of Asia Pacific,
Latin America, Turkey, the Middle East and
Africa – with double-digit growth in revenue
across these markets in the year. Our services
are helping multinationals expand into these
regions, and local companies become better
connected internationally. BT Global Services
won total orders of £6.3bn in the year despite
tough conditions in Europe and the financial
services sector.
Customer service
While our global customer service improved
during the year, some of the wettest weather
on record triggered a surge of faults in our
UK network. Despite significantly more
resources in our engineering teams, customers
sometimes waited longer than they should for
repairs and provision.
While such exceptional weather is unlikely
again, we’re making investments in customer
service to make us more responsive and better
equipped to deal with variable weather and
increased demand. This will help us get back
on track with the improved service levels we
delivered in the previous few years.
Overall in the year, we did what we said we
would do. We delivered strong financial results,
and made substantial investments. BT is a
better and stronger company than a year ago.
There’s a lot more to do, and many challenges,
but BT’s future has rarely looked so exciting.
Ian Livingston
Chief Executive
9 May 2013
We have a lot more to
do, but we are now a lot
better positioned to do it.
Watch my video online at
www.bt.com/annualreport